capture the sumptuousness of rococo with their voluminous dresses. Yetthe image of grace and beauty is disrupted in an act of self-effacement bythe intricate futuristic helmets they wear on their heads. In Ennui andVenice, from his Rococo Masquerade series, Russian-born painter BorisTyomkin portrays with a hazy diffuseness this long-gone era, which hebelieves still haunts us with its elegance, decadence, and ennui.
Australian artist Kate Rohde’s mixed-media pieces, Flourish (Spring),Flourish (Winter), and Emerald Cut Luxury Vitrine are cabinets of curiosity filled with garlands of flowers, small woodland creatures, and lushvegetation—all reminiscent of the pastel world of rococo. Mikhail Gubin’s wooden sculptures Infanta, Symphony No 1, and Rococo (Marquisde Sade) capture the energy and innovation of rococo with asymmetricalconstructions and intricately curvaceous shapes. Mixed-media artist Kris
Kuksi reshapes found objects—small toys, mechanical parts—into assemblages that are mesmerizing for their ornamentation and detail. In TheVisitation, a young woman who seems plucked out of a rococo paintingMikhail Gubin, Infanta (left), wood, acrylic, ink, pasted paper; Symphony No 1(right), wood, acrylic, ink
